6.26.2014

JENNIFER McCLURE: Laws of Silence

JenniferMcClure: I read that Thomas Roma likens the making of photographs to Robert Frost's idea of making a poem: "A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness, a lovesickness." My pictures come from that emotional space of longing, of wishing for things that never were and might never be. I don't know if I'm telling a story as much as trying to find a way out. I can only see a feeling clearly when I disarm and immobilize it, pin it to the wall and examine it with the others.

EA: What were your first subjects when you began?

Jennifer McClure: The first series I did was about nine years ago. I had just gotten clean and sober but I wasn't really comfortable with the idea. I put an ad in the Village Voice to photograph substance abusers. We spent a lot of time together, and I got to ask them the questions I was afraid to ask of myself. We had different circumstances but the same emotions and desires and needs, the same flawed coping mechanisms. This is what fascinates me, whether I am photographing myself or others: how we come to be the people we are, and how we choose to handle the lots we are given.